SEUL
C103 (8529 – 103 street) August 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22
More information: seuldance.wordpress.com
Seul at Edmonton Fringe Festival. Photo credit: Suzette Tanasiuk.
An interview with Kari Larson.
Describe your show in five words.
A moving exploration of aloneness.
Okay, now that we’re intrigued… what’s the longer description?
Watch a fighter, a social dancer, and a conversationalist struggle through the frustration and absurdity of undertaking their crafts alone. SEUL is made up of three vignettes that begin to blend into one another, as each individual explores their personal aloneness through movement, dance, and theatre.
How did you come up with the idea of putting a wrestler, a social dancer, and a conversationalist in a room exploring their solo crafts? What do you think people take away from this exploration?
I think the initial idea came from a thought about what it would be like to watch someone wrestle sans partner, and from there it branched into the idea of misplaced ‘aloneness’ within obviously partner activities – not just wrestling, but also partnered dance like swing/lindy hop, or even the act of conversation.
I hope that what people leave the show with (in their styrofoam take-away containers) is a balanced view of aloneness – that the struggle of aloneness should be acknowledged within ourselves but can also be smiled at and not taken too seriously.
In your press release you talk about putting martial arts and mad swing on the same stage – I have to ask – what is ‘mad swing’?
The phrase ‘mad swing’ is a baseball reference…I joke, it’s actually just a combination of vernacular terms to reference the lindy hop dance section in the show – lindy (for short) is a form of swing dance.
Your show is interdisciplinary, combining contemporary dance, non-traditional movement, and storytelling. Why choose to tell this particular story in this way?
Contemporary dance is my background, I’d say the non-traditional movement (at least for the stage) is the Brazilian jiu jitsu (which is amazing to watch by the way, I’ve been blown away while working with our performer, Andrew Gummer, who is an actor and also has 10 years of Brazilian jie jitsu movement in his body, it flows out of him so fluidly and effortlessly), and storytelling is just something I truly love to see in dance and isn’t always utilized, especially when dance veers into the abstract. I like to ground my choreography in the everyday and the tangible and a story structure is useful in creating a connection with an audience.
This was also my way of bringing the pedestrian or the everyday into a dance piece, by including throwaway dialogue and some of our group’s other general interests like martial art and social dance.
Anything else you want audiences to know about the show?
Don’t be afraid to come see a dance show! For more information and cast bios visit www.seuldance.wordpress.com.
The 34th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is August 13 – 23. Get your tickets at tickets.fringetheatre.ca starting August 4.